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Monday, December 7, 2009

AOTW: Rain Machine

This is Rain Machine's self-titled album. Rain Machine is Kyp Malone from TV On The Radio's mostly solo, mostly acoustic album. If you think TVOTR's music is over-produced this might be more to your liking. If you like TVOTR already, you might also like this. To be honest I haven't really listened to it properly, but a few songs have caught my ear already, so maybe we can do it together. Come on, let's hold hands.

I like "Give Blood" and "Smiling Black Faces" and I had listened to a live version of "Winter Song" a year ago or so, and that was pretty good too, but I have yet to listen to the whole Rain Machine record. Not TVOTR great, but I'm on board so far!

I liked these songs - I'll definitely give the rest of the album a try. There's something about his voice, though. I don't know how to describe it...it reminds me of some 90s bands I don't think I like, but I'm not even sure I know who they are. I'll have to get over that.

Blimpy, the TVOTR comparisons are obvious, you could be forgiven for thinking this was a TVOTR Unplugged album.Lamby, that's been my initial reaction: I'm on board so far, despite some flaws, but I think it could be a part of my autumn/winter listening in the long term.

I think I know what you mean Steen, is the grunge tones in his voice? I'm accostumed to his voice because he sometimes sings on TVOTR tracks, and they're definitely not grunge-y, and with all this production, I hadn't really noticed it. Listening to this album, I would say that the main flaw is his singing. I wish he sang a bit straighter on some songs.

the flaw I find is the drifting.. it needs editing (as an album) .. but when the songs come on next to more succinct tracks by other artist, it sounds really idiosyncratic.. so becomes a stand out rather than grating ... (I'm used to him from TVotR so didn't have to leap that first hurdle of vocal style)

on paper I should love TVOTR, but i've never taken to them for some reason, they always seem to be so much LESS than the sum of their parts.

as others have said, for me, this wasn't a BAD album, but it didn't really go anywhere and his voice went from a Davendra-ish whine to a Staley-esque drawl that didn't sit quite right....hmm.....thanks for posting it though, it was on my list of albums to investigate and the cover art is ace, I think the same artist does Thee Oh Sees stuff too....